Letter: Redistribution of funds and Superstorm Sandy

A cardinal refrain that we hear quite often, is “redistribution of wealth,” a concept also known as “spreading the money around.” In actuality, it is taking from the residents of states who produce much, and giving it to those who produce less. In the recent storm that damaged our state, as well as New York and Connecticut, it might be high time that a portion of those “federal” dollars be sent right back to the states that have been devastated.

To give some context to the subject, how does “redistribution” work for New Jersey, and should we expect our “fair share” of federally-collected tax dollars be returned to us for rebuilding the wreckage from Superstorm Sandy?

First, New Jersey, while a small state by size and population, is disproportionally large as one of the most dynamic producers of wealth in the country, ranking 7th highest in both state domestic product, and from those profits significant revenue is sent to Washington.

Yes, We, the People of New Jersey sure do our share of providing real cash for D.C. to redistribute, as per the following figures from 2007:

The amount of tax dollars collected from both the citizens and corporations of New Jersey for 2007 was about $122 billion, extracted from people and corporations generating a total product of about $483 billion. In other words, Washington takes 25 percent of all the wealth created by the people of this state.

In return for the tax dollars we send to Washington, we only got back about $74 billion, or 61 percent, which puts us Number One on the list of states that receive less than what we pay.

Over 10- to 15-year period, assuming the return is the same, Washington is ahead nearly three quarters of a trillion dollars, quite a tidy sum.

Secondly, should we have legitimate claims to any aid for storm damages? The facts are blazingly obvious. The people of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut are core financiers of the federal government, and the pure dictates of logic say that a portion of the largesse needs to come back to the tri-state area for rebuilding in order to keep Washington in the revenue it has historically enjoyed to “redistribute.”

Our governor, far from being the chief executive of a state in search of a patronizing handout, is on solid ground in his requests for what amounts to a small percentage of what we have given Washington over the years. We have financed redistribution for other states, now it is time to redistribute some of our own taxed income back home.